English Entertainment
Hallmark kicks off 2005 with true crime and an unusual murder mystery
MUMBAI: He has five days to solve a murder. His own!
Hallmark starts the new year with an unusual crime film. Five Days To Midnight airs in two parts on 2 and 3 January at 9:45 pm.
A murder has apparently been committed. There is the detailed police file, the bullet that killed him-and most important, the grisly photographs of the crime scene. There’s just one catch. The victim is still alive.
For mild-mannered professor JT Newmeyer, today is a time for celebration-it’s the birthday of his beautiful daughter and only child Jesse. Today is also a reason for mourning as it’s the anniversary of his beloved wife’s death. And for JT, today is a cause for alarm as well.
A mysterious package has arrived at his door containing evidence of his own murder. Although the police file-dating his death at five days from now-looks authentic, JT is relieved to find some of the items in the crime scene photographs unfamiliar, like the blue parka he’s wearing and the green Jeep-neither of which he owns. He concludes that the package is the sick prank of a brilliant but obsessed student. The film stars Timothy Hutton and Randy Quaid
The channel will also air the Canadian film Torso on 4 January at 9:45 pm. The film which is based on a true story sees sex kitten Evelyn Dick being accused of the brutal murder of her husband in one of the most sensational cases in Canadian history.
In 1946 two boys discover the hacked-up torso of streetcar conductor John Dick. naturally his wife becomes the prime suspect. The grisly nature of the murder–and the sexual reputation of Evelyn, who admits to having slept with over 150 of Hamilton’s most powerful men makes the trial the talk of Steeltown.
Evelyn is sentenced to hang, However a lawyer J.J. Robinette gets the verdict overturned on appeal, until his client is charged with the murder of her infant son. Robinette suspects that the truth about Evelyn’s disturbing family background will set her free, but she refuses to testify against her parents. Evelyn’s past remains a dark secret–and ensures that one of Canada’s most lurid and sensational murder cases remains unsolved.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
